Congratulations on flOw being one of the games recently acquired by MoMA’s permanent collection. Does that acquisition reflect some of the goals you’ve had for your games and your company?

TGC [thatgamecompany] has been focusing on making games that introduce new kinds of emotional experiences. We are using video games to communicate strong feelings that are humane to our players, which I think is why people consider our games artistic. Out of all the games we’ve made, flOw is considered the least artistic game out of all the games we created. flOw is a test sample we made to prove that Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s psychology theory could be used to improve accessibility for a wide variety of users to enter a Flow state while playing games. So when it is acquired by MoMA’s permanent collection, I’m somewhat confused at first since it’s the least emotional game out of all the games we’ve made. Then I read the details that it’s a collection for video game starters. I guess the mouse control made it much more accessible than the other TGC games where players have to learn how to use a controller.

With many artists making time-based work, such as video and online pieces, time is a crucial component of their work, similar to how a painter thinks about paint. When you are designing a game, does the aspect of time factor into your decisions as much as aesthetics? And if so, since time is really variable depending on the game’s user (as opposed to a video which has a specific length of time), how do you consider the flexible factor of time in your games?

During the making of flOw, the thing that matters the most is that time is our budget. We have to make our decisions to design the game so we can finish it and polish it before we run out of money. When it comes to players’ time spent with our game, we don’t try to control it, instead we want our players to take the time they need to engage with the game and practice their skills before they feel ready to move on. It’s an active difficulty management from the player’s subconscious, so their interactivity with the virtual world remains in the Flow zone.

Some reviews of your games talk about how the player brings herself into the game and has a unique experience because of the environment and challenges that are presented in response to her actions and choices. This is a little bit like artists who want to leave space within their art so that the viewers construct their own meaning, rather than the artists telling the viewers what to think. Does that seem like an apt analogy for how you want to construct the player’s experience within your games?

It depends on the title. Journey, out of all the games we made, is very much left for players to interpret. We wanted a spiritual journey. However, we don’t want to preach any specific version of religion. Therefore, we want to leave as much space as possible for the players to fill. In the game rather than relying on the traditional storytelling through text and cinema, we used “story discovery” as our way to communicate the narrative. We want the player to discover the world, reveal pieces of ancient history that give abstract information and come up with their own understanding of what happened in the past and assign their own meaning to the journey they go through.

The development of flOw was informed by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s theories of flow as applied to games, which you wrote about in your MFA thesis. Now that you run a game design company, how do you make sure that you still experience periods of flow, particularly in terms of creativity? And is it possible to ensure that the team has opportunities for flow as well?

There are many conditions for flow to happen during the creative process. At thatgamecompany, the creative process isn’t always smooth and great. What enabled us to enjoy the process slightly longer was probably due to the fact that we are very confident about what we are doing and therefore feel we are in control. Even though we don’t know what the game is going to be in the end, we are certain that the direction we are taking is proven in the traditional medium, like knowing that you are on a boat that will follow the river to the destination eventually. We might run into a couple hitches and obstacles here and there, but we are making progress towards the end goal. With that said, the development process of making creative projects is filled with up and downs, I doubt if the entire process is always in flow, whether it will actually be boring or not.

Biography

Jenova Chen (Chinese, born 1981) earned a B.S. at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and an MFA at University of Southern California, in the Interactive Media Division. He went on to found thatgamecompany where he remains its Creative Director. He has created the award-winning games Cloud, flOw, Flower, and Journey. Flower has been awarded the British Academy of Film and Television Arts for Artistic Achievement; Best Downloadable Game of the Year by the Game Developers Choice Awards; and Best Independent Game by Spike TV Video Game awards. The game Journey has received numerous awards since being released, including “Game of the Year” by GameSpot (2012); Best Director, Best Art Direction, and Best Sound Design by Telegraph Video Awards (2012), and Best Overall Game (among other awards) by IGN (2012). Chen has been named one of Variety’s 10 Innovators to Watch (2008); Most Creative Entrepreneurs in Business (2009, 2010); and named by MIT’s Technology Review Magazine TR35 list as one of World’s Top Innovators under the Age of 35 (2008).

27 Responses

great issues altogether, you just gained a logo new reader. What would you recommend in regards to your post that you simply made some days in the past? Any positive?

Health and Fitness / 8-17-2017 / ·

I like this weblog very much, Its a really nice place to read and obtain info . “God cannot alter the past, but historians can.” by Samuel Butler.

cheap armani tops / 8-16-2017 / ·

I’ve read some good stuff here. Definitely worth bookmarking for revisiting. I wonder how much effort you put to create such a fantastic informative site.

prześcieradło z kory 160×200 / 8-16-2017 / ·

Hello there, simply turned into aware about BLOGURL thru Search engines, and found that propose being very careful informative. I’m gonna watch through for brussels. I will appreciate should you continue this in long term future. A lot of folks will be benefited in your writing. Cheers! NAME

twerking / 8-16-2017 / ·

by way of which to distinguish herself.|Some enterprising person backstage just happened to be shooting video of the incident and, nicely,

twerking / 8-16-2017 / ·

Travis Porter and Sage The Gemini can be heard on the TWERK station at Pandora.|Following releasing 1st booty shaking music video few months back Siise is back with an additional 2mins+ twerk music video.|Regardless of whether or not it is portion of a globally-recognized fitness

twerking / 8-16-2017 / ·

In reality, they had been so committed to twerking they would go to the Supreme Court to defend their 1st amendment right to throw the d.|Right after the New Directions watch Blaine’s scandalous twerking video,

twerking / 8-15-2017 / ·

by way of which to distinguish herself.|Some enterprising person backstage just occurred to be shooting video of the incident and, nicely,

twerking / 8-15-2017 / ·

It appears like one particular of the guys could deal with 1 skinny girl twerking but when the other came it was as well a lot for him.

ocieplina do kurtek / 8-15-2017 / ·

Greetings from Carolina! I’m bored to death at work so I decided to browse your website on my iphone during lunch break. I really like the knowledge you provide here and can’t wait to take a look when I get home. I’m amazed at how quick your blog loaded on my cell phone .. I’m not even using WIFI, just 3G .. Anyhow, wonderful site!

twerking / 8-15-2017 / ·

other and laughed.|TWERKhoreo® is a weekly class held for our sophisticated twerkers who want to place their moves learnt from TWERKFit® classes into complex routines.|I now have totally no concentrate for the rest of the day simply because

twerking / 8-15-2017 / ·

through which to distinguish herself.|Some enterprising particular person backstage just occurred to be shooting video of the incident and, well,

discount ralph lauren polo / 8-15-2017 / ·

Thanks for each of your work on this blog. Debby really likes working on investigation and it’s really easy to understand why. Many of us learn all regarding the dynamic means you create advantageous guidance via your web blog and even strongly encourage participation from visitors on that concern and my simple princess is actually understanding a lot. Take pleasure in the rest of the year. You’re doing a very good job.

twerking / 8-15-2017 / ·

the rest is viral video history.|Gaunt’s dataset includes videos of girls alone in their bedrooms, or with pals, or groups of girls in living rooms or backyards.|In my humble opinion these

twerking / 8-15-2017 / ·

We can’t honestly say that we weren’t surprised and impressed by the sheer ingenuity of the Twerking Butt.|The staff at Scripps Ranch Higher College discussed a twerking incident involving students in a letter addressed to a school trustee.|

twerking / 8-15-2017 / ·

In reality, they had been so devoted to twerking they would go to the Supreme Court to defend their 1st amendment right to throw the d.|Right after the New Directions watch Blaine’s scandalous twerking video,

twerking / 8-15-2017 / ·

Wiz Khalifa and Nicki Minaj In 2012, She released her very first single, Fame”.|We watched intensely in the mirror to see whether or not we could imitate Diamond’s impressive twerking technique, then looked at every

twerking / 8-14-2017 / ·

Wiz Khalifa and Nicki Minaj In 2012, She released her first single, Fame”.|We watched intensely in the mirror to see regardless of whether we could imitate Diamond’s impressive twerking method, then looked at every single

check my source / 8-13-2017 / ·

I simply want to tell you that I am newbie to blogs and truly liked this website. More than likely I’m want to bookmark your site . You definitely have perfect posts. With thanks for sharing your web site.

girls are genius when it comes to mixing the art of dancing and the art of getting attractive at the same time.|The suit described the abuse suffered by girls at the northern Minnesota

Albert Chambliss / 7-12-2017 / ·

through which to distinguish herself.|Some enterprising particular person backstage just occurred to be shooting video of the incident and, nicely,

Yuko Gotlib / 6-29-2017 / ·

Wiz Khalifa and Nicki Minaj In 2012, She released her very first single, Fame”.|We watched intensely in the mirror to see whether or not we could imitate Diamond’s impressive twerking technique, then looked at each and every

Jayson Jannsen / 6-28-2017 / ·

|It’s an incredibly sexy factor to do and it is my mission to take ladies out of their comfort zone and get them twerking.|However,

single screw extruder manufacturer / 6-26-2017 / ·

Ahaa, its pleasant dialogue regarding this piece of writing at this place at this weblog,
I have read all that, so now me also commenting here.

Thaddeus Mcneish / 6-7-2017 / ·

I like the valuable info you provide in your articles. I will bookmark your blog and check again here frequently. I am quite sure I’ll learn a lot of new stuff right here! Best of luck for the next!

Rudolph Caretto / 6-7-2017 / ·

Hello! Would you mind if I share your blog with my myspace group? There’s a lot of people that I think would really appreciate your content. Please let me know. Many thanks